My daughter, her boyfriend, and the boyfriend's brother and father, and I took the water taxi on Echo. We met 4 PCT NoBos at the general store by the marina. Passing through Haypress Meadows the mosquitos were pretty heavy. All the streams between Echo and Aloha were dry-no water. At Aloha for the first night, mosquitos were moderate in wooded areas, but mild out on the rocks. The wind picked up and we had a bit of rain Wed. night. The new ZPacks rain tarp (8' x 11' and 6 oz.) worked really well.

We passed Heather and Susie on the way to Gilmore Thursday. My daughter and I had done this same route two years to the day earlier (2011) with everything still covered in deep snow . This year we found one single patch a quarter mile before reaching Susie, so stopped to make Kool Aid snow cones. After leaving Aloha and dropping into the canyon toward Heather, only one small stream still had water; everything else was already dried up. Some water was flowing from the outlets of both Heather and Susie. Crossing via stepping stones at the Susie outlet was easy. Susie to Gilmore was dry except for the stagnant ponds in between until we reached the stream exiting Gilmore.

At Gilmore the mosquitos were moderate and the sky clear on Thursday night.

From Gilmore to Glen Alpine on Friday, all the little streams were dry, but the ground in wooded areas was still moist enough that mosquitos were plentiful. Weather was clear.